Jill Navarre, director,
playwright, screenwriter

I was born in New Orleans , Louisiana , and grew up in Brooklyn , New York. (The story of that unlikely journey is told in PORTRAIT OF ANNA , a screenplay which I am now writing.)
I started writing when I was 9 years old, and won a New York City-wide competition for best essay on the theme, WHY I LIKE TO READ . Graduating from essays, I wrote poetry (10 years' worth) and have had numerous poems published in the U.S. and Canada . While living in Toronto , a group of us started a coffee house called THE SOFT CELL , which presented some of Canada 's greatest poets for a solid evening of poetry and all the chocolate chip cookies you could eat.

Back in the U.S. , while working on my Master's degree in English, I took a playwriting class – for a lark – and got hooked on theatre. Well, I was always involved somehow. As a kid I loved to sing and in summer camp got a chance to do some great roles, like Ado Annie in OKLAHOMA ! Goodbye Master's degree, hello Broadway!

My first job in theatre was selling tickets for AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami , Florida .

Since then, some of the highlights of my career have been winning awards for directing - RIVERS OF BLOOD (First Prize, Source Theatre Festival, Washington, D.C.) and playwriting - THE CRADLE WILL FALL (First Prize, Washington, D.C. Arts Council Larry Neal Award).

I worked as Asst. Box Office Manager at the FOLGER THEATRE in D.C. for 3 years, and every night (well, almost every night) I would watch great actors performing Shakespeare. While working on a production of UNDER MILKWOOD , I met two other theatre artists who became my best friends and colleagues. We were crazy enough to think we could start a new theatre company in Washington which would present cross cultural, inter-racial, avant-garde theatre. And we did. So I became one of the founding members of the SANCTUARY THEATRE, managing the New Play series, and helping many young playwrights to present their work for the first time. I fell in love with directing, and have directed 22 plays in the U.S. and India .

The India connection started way back in 1987 when I made my first backpacking trip to “the East” and stumbled on a place called Auroville, an international community of people in Tamil Nadu, India , dedicated to human unity and peace. Sort of like a kibbutz, but with an Indian atmosphere. I knew something interesting and important was going on here, and although I returned to the U.S. , the place stayed with me, until I decided I had to check it out. Staying for one year in 1991 was enough to convince me that this was where I belonged, and I've lived here ever since. I've been Artistic Director of the AUROVILLE THEATRE GROUP since 1992. In 2003, I was awarded a Government of India Development Scheme grant for directing MILAREPA .

In 2002, I returned with my partner, Edgar Weinberger, to the States to hunker down and write our screenplay, SANNYASI , adapted from Satprem's novel, SANNYASIN: or BY THE BODY OF THE EARTH The time was well spent. I even got a chance to work as acting coach on a short film in Portland, Oregon, called EXILE FROM THE SUN , written and directed by Michael Poitevin.

Now I do translations (French/English). Edgar and I have translated the play MILAREPA , by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, which the AUROVILLE THEATRE GROUP performed here in January, 2004, under my direction. Our most recent production was THE RAINMAKER by N. Richard Nash (2006). I am currently writing a play, ANANDA , and a screenplay, PORTRAIT OF ANNA . Meanwhile, SANNYASI is ready to go.